Re: getmail configuration (How to run fetchmail as daemon at startup)

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 10:54:11AM +0200, Benedict Verheyen wrote:
> Andrei Popescu schreef:
> > Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net> wrote:
> > 
> >> 1.) What is 'reinjection in a mail queue'? Where can I learn how this 
> >> differs from whatever is being done by fetchmail as an example case?
> >> Or does fetchmail also do reinjection in a mail queue?
> > 
> > As I understand it, the pop3/imap protocols were created to allow a
> > mail client to retrieve the mail and present it to the user. Fetchmail
> > instead is feeding it back to a mail server through port 25.
> 
> In my case, i use fetchmail in daemon mode without problems but
> apperently, there is some ugliness with bounced messages when using
> reinjection. Not sure how or what that entails but i would also like to
> know what the exact problem is.
> 
> I've had a look at getmail and it's indeed easy to setup & have cron
> check the mail, but, with fetchmail the spam & virus checking is done
> from exim.
> 
> With getmail this is no longer possible so you have to find another way
> of checking spam/virusses. I checked and you can do that from maildrop
> (you can also do that from procmail i think) but i haven't found out a
> working solution yet as i like to setup spam/virus checking systemwide.
> With exim, this is not a problem at all.
> 

Thanks for your response. You confirm my suspicion that I was suffering
from an excess of caution. I have replaced fetchmail with getmail, not
because I found fetchmail unsatisfactory, but because I wanted to test
my understanding of how email works. The set-up that I now have does
allow me to keep my spam checking the same way it was when I used fetchmail,
it might be useful to describe it here.

The key to using getmail as a replacement for fetchmail is to recognize that
exim is a MDA as well as a MTA, so one just tells getmail to use it for local
delivery. This done in the destination segment of the getmailrc file:

[destination]
type = MDA_external
path = /usr/sbin/exim4
arguments = ("pec@localhost",)

The arguments line tells getmail to tell exim that the email incoming on
sysin is to be processed according to its config and then sent to my local
user account. The exim config has already been set up to run spamassassin
and procmail, so everything else runs just as before when fetchmail was
in use. 

Getmail can be run periodically using crontab, as has already been
suggested.  My crontab is:

# m h  dom mon dow   command
*/15 * * * * getmail -rrc1 -rrc2 -rrc3 -rrc4

(Getmail requires a separate rc file for each poll segment in a fetchmailrc.
I had four poll segments in mine.)

Why do this? I'm not sure. Maybe just to prove that it can be done.

Also, I was unconvinced by the reasoning of several posters that they use
fetchmail and have never been bothered by losing email: If I were losing
email, how would I know? So I thought maybe I should try an alternative
set-up and see if there is a difference. So far, with about 40 hrs of 
observation, I don't see one, which is highly _in_conclusive. 

Anyway, others who were also frightened by the bad things said about
fetchmail can try my recipe for moving to getmail but keeping exim,
procmail, and spamassassin.

Thanks,
-- 
Paul E Condon 
pecondon@mesanetworks.net